Sunday, January 17, 2016

Why We Are Here

The Blisses, still in Bulgaria.

Today is the 5th anniversary of the ReachGlobal
Sofia City Team.Exactly half a decade
ago my family and I moved to Bulgaria.Today, I am going to write about why.

There are so many things to work for in this world.Some strive for a political ideology.Some seek fame.Some seek to build an empire.Some want adventure.Most merely desire the comfort and security
of a simple of life.None of these are
my goal because none of them will last.

Politics are important.They shape the world.They determine
whether we will live in freedom or in servitude.Yet every nation at some point will cease to
exist.No country lasts forever.

Fame is nice.It
makes us feel loved.Yet even those who
have it seem to be found wanting more, and eventually all fame evaporates.How many of us can name even one actor from the Globe Theater, or more
than a handful of movie stars from the early 20th century.Eventually every famous person will be
forgotten.

Building an empire may seem important.We can leave a legacy to our greatness by
starting a big business.We can change
the world with our power and position.Yet no matter how much we strive, everything we build will some day turn
to dust.

Adventure is great!I
love adventures.Yet the thrill of
summiting a mountain in Europe or fishing for swordfish off the coast of Central
America or chasing a tribe of monkeys through the jungle in the Congo does not
last.Adventures make for good memories,
that’s all.

Comfort is one of the most alluring things on this planet.It is the thing that most of us settle for in
life.Just give us a soft couch and a TV
to watch our favorite programs and we will spend our lives drinking and eating
until eventually that is all we know.And then some day our life will be over.

Whatever we chase on this planet, it will pass.Yet the people who chase them will not.

As a Christian, I believe in the eternity of the human
soul.This means that everyone who has
ever existed from the creation of the world until now still exists.This also means that every person I come in
contact with will exist forever in a radically different form then they are
now.This is something I take very
seriously.

C. S. Lewis perhaps said it best:

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of
possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting
person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you
would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as
you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some
degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in
the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the
circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with
one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no
ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures,
arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of
a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and
exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.” (The Weight of Glory)

Think about that for a moment.The pharmacist across the street shoveling
the snow off of the sidewalk, the Gypsy guy who drives his horse and buggy
around the neighborhood collecting treasures from dumpsters, the woman who
nearly ran into me at the stop light last week, none of these people are
ordinary.All of them will exist
forever.

When we see people for whom they really are, the world seems
to fade away.Fame, power, adventure,
and comfort all seem meaningless.Even
health, freedom, and life seem like secondary goals.Most of what we consider important is merely
a temporal entity.Only people are
eternal.

Not only are we all eternal, as Christians we are in
possession of vital information that can affect everyone’s eternal destiny.It is the message of God’s grace given to us
through Jesus.We need this free gift of
salvation.Without it, every one of us
eternal people will get exactly what we deserve.

With that in mind, how could I spend my life chasing after
something that will not last?What kind
of a fool would I be if I clung to that which I cannot keep while giving up
that which can never be lost?I have no
control over people accepting this great salvation.But I do have control over whether or not I
tell them about it.

Thus, I gave myself to God’s will and sought His guidance as
to where to serve Him best.He led me to
the county of Bulgaria, to the city of Sofia, to the neighborhood of
Lozenets.Here I will stay, until He
leads me elsewhere.